Debbie Lewry Makes History in the Derwent River Swim in Tasmania, Australia.
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Article: Seti Afoa

New Zealand marathon swimmer Debbie Lewry has etched her name into the record books, becoming the first unassisted solo female swimmer from Aotearoa New Zealand to complete the 34 km Derwent River Marathon Swim in Tasmania.
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On January 29, 2025, Debbie took on the mighty Derwent River, finishing the grueling swim in an impressive 9 hours, 6 minutes, and 29 seconds. Battling water temperatures ranging from 18.4°C to 19.8°C, air temperatures between 10°C and 26.2°C, and wind speeds of up to 20 km p/h, she showed remarkable endurance and determination throughout the challenge.

"I love to challenge myself. This was a massive test and I really didn’t know if I had it in me but with my amazing support team, the swim went seamlessly. I was proud of everyone on the day."

The Derwent River Big Swim is a 34-kilometer (21.1 miles) ultra-marathon swim in Tasmania. It begins at the New Norfolk Bridge in the historic town of New Norfolk and concludes at the iconic Tasman Bridge in Hobart.

Debbie, who now lives in Queensland Australia, grew up on the Kāpiti Coast and last lived in Wellington, has always maintained strong ties to New Zealand. She returns home each year to visit family and train in the cold waters, preparing for major marathon swims like this one.
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​Reflecting on her achievement, Debbie expressed admiration for her fellow Kiwi swimmers featured on the NZ Ultra Marathon Swim Awards site.

“I’m in awe of the other Kiwi swimmers on the site! I’m just in the early part of my marathon swimming journey and love seeing what people achieve. It inspires me to aim high.”

Her accomplishment was celebrated by the Derwent River Big Swim and the Australian Long Distance Swim community, recognising her incredible effort in completing this demanding course without assistance.​

The Derwent Swim official site records Debbie as the first Kiwi woman to swim the Derwent River and she was excited to share her success with fellow Kiwi swimmers. 

Congratulations, Debbie, on your wonderful achievement!

Swim facts: 
Swim name - Derwent Big River Swim (Hobart, Tasmania)
Date - 29 January 2025
Event - Solo unassisted
Distance - 34 km (36.6 km swam) 
Time - 9 hrs 06 min 29 sec
Pilot - Watts pilot service
Independent Observer - Julie Boxall 
Feeder - Stewart Germon 
Boat - Brum 


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Other comment
I'm grateful to my family, my parents Mark and mum for the encouragement to pursue my dream. 

Sheryl McLay, my open water swim coach is another I am indebted to for mentoring me and coaching me. I live in Hamilton but every weekend I travel to the Mount to swim with Sheryl and her group. 

I am keen to swim Cook Strait next, and then Foveaux Strait at some point. The NZ Triple Crown interests me. I would also like to swim overseas. ​​



END

Ultra-Swims 
Cook Strait n-s
Date of swim: 13 April 2008
Time: 4hrs 37mins (Record - fastest time) 
Neutral Observer, Philip Rush 
Age: 21 yrs 
Neutral observer: Philip Rush

Taupō s-n
Date of swim: 25 February 2013
Time: 10hrs 52mins 48secs 
Age: 26 yrs
Neutral observer: Philip Rush

English Channel E-F 
Date of swim: 4 September 2013 
TIme: 9hrs 14mins
Age: 27 yrs
Neutral observer: CSPF ​

Please tell us something unique about your achievement. Tell your story
​At around 10 years old I wanted to become an Olympian after watching Danyon Loader win two golds medals at the 1996 Olympics. Unfortunately, I never achieved this goal. However, during my teens, I noticed I was rather good at open water swimming. Winning local events and constantly achieving higher placings  at ocean swims events. 

My coach John Ross would always get the squad to sit on the side of the pool and tell all of us around 10/11 years of age and say, you are all such good swimmers you could swim to the South Island if you wanted to. Some swimming buddies Kate Johns & John Gatfield became the youngest at the time to swim Cook Strait. My mum, Ruth would always mention you should do the Strait. I was more interested in doing well in the pool. 

At 20 I caved and said I would give it a good crack. So I was booked in for April 2008. In January our squad had completed a week-long training camp clocking over 100km in the week. The longest session was 12 km. Heading into the Cook Strait, that was the longest swim I had completed so I was extremely nervous to swim 26 km in one hit. My best friend Matt Woodrow said to me the week before you should probably go under five hours. I laughed and said, let's see what happens on the day. 

After the first choppy hour, the swell smoothed out, it was around 1.5m. Using the current in my favour I was able to swim between 6 - 6.5km/hr. That is holding under 1-minute pace per 100m. I was aiming to hold 1.12min pace (5km/h). Phil, Joe (my dad), Frank (my coach) and the boat crew had bets on when I would finish and were expecting the tide to change and push me away. I was able to beat the tide and break the existing record and in the process set a new record for the Strait at 4hrs 37mins. 

After completing the Cook Strait, the English Channel was next on my list. However, my main focus was the 2012 London Olympic Games in the 10-km open water swim event. In the four years I changed swimming clubs, battled with various shoulder injuries, missed out on qualifying for the World Champs, and World Cup events by seconds. Diagnosed with Scoliosis, inguinal hernia and Atrial fibrillation also made my journey an interesting battle. At the 2012 Olympic trials, I missed out on the top two spot by 20-seconds. Heartbroken! Got over it, and I focused my attention on the English Channel and Taupō. ​

A lot of the marathon swimmers I have met seem to have backgrounds in competitive swimming.  I didn’t. I grew up as a bookworm in London and spent my school swimming career as a gap-filler rather than anything serious.  
 
It wasn’t until we moved to New Zealand in 1998 that triathlon piqued my interest. After a couple of seasons, I joined the familiar path of middle-aged men obsessing about Ironman.  It’s easy to make fun of myself for the single-mindedness with which I focused on it for six seasons, but I learned heaps about myself, elite sport, and endurance training.  My coach for most of this phase was Jon Ackland who literally wrote the book on training for endurance sport: The Power to Perform.  I can still quote passages of the book from memory and apply it to all of the adventures I’ve taken on.  
 
Ironically, for all his distinction as a triathlon coach, Jon was quite dismissive of swimming in the Ironman puzzle: “it’s technical – find a coach and train with a squad – just do the sessions I set you”.  I did and by applying his insights into training and racing endurance sports to some solid technique work (“you must have learned how to swim in the 1970s – your stroke should be in a museum”). I swam up to the front of my age group only to spend the next 2 hours being overtaken by them all on the bike.  A couple of times I managed to come back at the end of the run.  Rather stupidly that was attempts 3 and 4, not quite sure what possessed me to keep going for 2 seasons after that.
 
Towards the end of taking Ironman seriously, I dabbled with open water swims, a couple of Epic 10 km, Kapiti to Mainland swim, and then a 3-man Cook Strait relay in 2016.  
 
 
The relay took us 5 hours and 42 mins.  “Well, if it’s as easy as that surely I could do it” I thought (incredibly naïvely looking back on it).

My last Ironman was 2013.  I floated around for a few years until 2017 when I heard about this wonderful new sport, Swimrun, from Scandanavia: you swim in your shoes and run in a wetsuit.  The longest races are huge – over 50k of running and 15k of swimming.  It’s been a blast, Brenton “Effortless Swimming” Ford and I did the first swimrun in the Southern Hemisphere off the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.  Breca arrived in Wanaka during 2017 adding the incredible Bay of Islands race in 2018 with the highest ratio of swimming to running of any Breca event.  It was a dream, you start at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and finish at Urupukapuka Island in the middle of the Bay.  It takes an hour to retrace your steps and strokes by boat, which is a pretty cool feeling.  
 
I did more swimrun events around NZ and overseas in my favourite places in the UK and even Norway, swimming more and running less each time!
 
The 2019 Breca Bay of Islands had 12 km of swimming which was pretty amazing. So, in 2020, Anna Marshall persuaded me to do the FEAR Society Long Swim: 25 km from Te Anau to Manapōuri, 23 of which were at 12-kph down the Waiau River.
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Ultra Marathon Swim 
Chopper Swim - Waiheke to Auckland
Swim date: 25 March 2021
Distance: 20 km
Time: 7 hrs 12 mins
Age: 34
Observer: Dermot Smith

Please tell us something unique about your achievement. Tell your story
At a very young age my parents enrolled me in 10 swimming lessons at the Greenhithe Swim School. I never got in. Not even a toe. Didn't get my hair wet. As time passed I eventually plucked up the courage to get in the pool. After completing lessons at the Greenhithe pool, then Freyburg and later on Waitakere City Swim Club, I entered my first swim meet at the age of 13. Fast forward several years and I joined the Waitakere City Masters Swim club where I competed at several Pan Pacific Masters Games, the Australian Masters Champs, Samoa Swim Series, World Masters Swim Champs, Alcatraz Crossing and many NZ swim events in the pool and open water. Such wonderful experiences. 

Having been encouraged by several swimming friends, I decided to give marathon swimming a crack. My first 10km swim was in Lake Taupo at the EPIC event in 2015. I threw up for most of the last 3km. But made it. A few long swims later including the Starship Fundraising swim in 2020 I entered the Chopper Swim as a solo swimmer, 20km straight up. Throughout the swim, I felt relaxed, calm and my stroke was strong and smooth. Put together, all swimmers raised over $46,000. 

I would like to extend a huge thanks to my family and friends who constantly support and motivate me to aim higher. 

So the seed was planted. Can I swim more than 20km? All I have to tell myself is....just keep swimming. 

How did your life change following your achievement(s)?
The Waiheke Chopper Swim has put a fire in my belly to now achieve much bigger swims. I have a passion for swimming challenges and I am curious to see how far I can physically and mentally push my body. 

I have had much encouragement from family and friends urging me into longer swims. This is such a confidence boost and I appreciate all the support and advice that I receive. 

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Alice and her super-supporter mum, Olwyn Smith.
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Early part of the Apolima Strait swim, the day turned nasty and there were white caps for most of the swim. There were three DNF's on that day, swimmers from India, USA, and France. 

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After Taupo, I used what was essentially a good training base to complete both the Apolima Strait crossing in Samoa in April, and the length of Lake Zurich in Switzerland in August 2018. Both these swims came as a bit of a surprise. I qualified for Samoa earlier in November 2017, and during the same week found out I’d been accepted for Lake Zurich. I hadn’t anticipated this… decided not to turn down the chance for overseas travel!

Both Apolima and Zurich were amazing and challenging swims, but for very different reasons.  For Samoa, I’ll always remember Auckland swimmer Jacques de Reuck’s observation “there are whitecaps on the [resort] swimming pool” on the morning that we set of across the Strait. Once we were beyond the reef, I had some white caps on the spot learning with constant sickness during the first half of the swim. This was to eventually settle, and for the second half the swim I happily followed a little yellow reef fish who had become resident under my kayaker’s boat. 

Switzerland was even hotter than Samoa and it was a new experience swimming in 27 Celsius degree water, with a 34 C air temp. Also an organised race, rather than a solo event, it was quite overwhelming to leave Rapperswil with a huge mass of swimmers, plus a support boat for everyone! It took me a while to find my support crew… who quite comically, to me, were rowing a traditional Swiss jig all the way! (Who would want to row near 30 km I kept asking myself….. quite forgetting I was swimming it). It was a very scenic swim with some amazing Swiss lakeside houses to eye up along the way.
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Switzerland was also special as I had family join me for the adventure. In fact, invaluable to all my swims are the wonderful and super supportive swim crews who have cheered, guided, yelled, encouraged, told me off, reminded me to eat, and pointed me in the right direction (literally) along the way. They’ve even bribed me with peanut butter sandwiches. My number one swim travel companion is my mum – who as an avid swimmer herself is always keen to come and support. I am very thankful for this.